I think the reasoning is that Hasbro seems to want to shift collector focus to this larger scale line despite most collectors having sunk thousands of dollars into the 3.75" line and having no space nor desire for a new scale. They basically want us to rebuy everything at $20 a pop, and I know I'm not up for that.

I agree. I think that with this move into the 6" figure line Hasbro might be trying to tap into a broader adult toy collector market, and not necessarily just Star Wars fans. There are lots of toy collectors who will buy a lot of 6" figures of Marvel & DC licensed merchandise. Add in the smaller companies like NECA, McFarlane, etc, and you see a sector of toy collecting that is very much about the 6" scale. I think this is a very calculated move on Hasbro's part to broaden their collector audience by moving into this scale.

I suspect that Hasbro thinks the 6" scale might be a gateway into the 3.75" scale system, too. I don't think the 6" line means a shift away from the classic scale at all. Especially not when Hasbro & Kenner combined have a 30+ year history with that scale.

I've been thinking about this over night. And while we won't have answers until Toy Fair, and maybe never, here's my thoughts...

If producing high quality obscure background characters, EU characters, characters from cut-scenes, and any other odd segment of the 3.75 collection is profitable for Hasbro, they would continue.

Obviously, it isn't. If they need to move the scale to more kid friendly assortment and less articulation to keep SW going, then that's what they need to do. They are a business, and business needs to make money.

Honestly, if they said tomorrow that 3.75 figures are done, and there would be no more, I'd be bummed, but I would also be shocked of the ride we've had since 1995. We have toys that I never imagined being made.

The 6 inch line just seems like another idea that they want to try. Personally, I'm in. 8-16 figures a year is nothing.

Also, I'm shocked about the nastiness I am seeing aimed at Hasbro SW team members. Sure DePreist made a snide comment about the 15th Cantina guy, but how many times has this guy been called an "idiot" or "moron" or "evil" in SW forums. People seem to think it's all his fault. It's also his fault that we got the BMF.

Also, I'm shocked about the nastiness I am seeing aimed at Hasbro SW team members. Sure DePreist made a snide comment about the 15th Cantina guy, but how many times has this guy been called an "idiot" or "moron" or "evil" in SW forums. People seem to think it's all his fault. It's also his fault that we got the BMF.

+1

The virtriole and hyperbolic fanboy whining that has been sent in Derrly DePriest's direction has been ugly and uncalled for. How some people can look themselves in the mirror after spewing venom like that is beyond my comprehension.

Does anyone REALLY remember the state of things around 2002/2003 before he took over the Hasbro-Star Wars team? Things were NOT good. Hasbro failed majorly on the Clone Troopers that were central to the title ATTACK OF THE CLONES by giving us a Clone Trooper with rank markings that we barely even saw in the movie. And when Hasbro offered up a plain, white super articulated Clone Trooper? I can still remember the mad scramble for that figure from 10 years ago. It was RIDICULOUS. It was a great figure for it's time, and collectors were so amped for the Clone Wars that they were clamoring for that figure, but nobody could find them to do the army building they wanted to do.

Collectors wanted more Clones? We got them, and in spades!Collectors wanted more articulation and less pre-posing? That happened, and higher levels are articulation are pretty much standardCollectors wanted a Big Millenium Falcon with lots of details? We got it, and it's pretty awesome.Collectors wanted other large vehicles, like the AT-TE, AT-AT, Turbo Tank, etc? We got them.

Are things perfect? No. There are serious concerns over distribution at this time. But things got a whole lot better for Star Wars collectors in the period following 2004 than they were before then.

If producing high quality obscure background characters, EU characters, characters from cut-scenes, and any other odd segment of the 3.75 collection is profitable for Hasbro, they would continue.

Obviously, it isn't. If they need to move the scale to more kid friendly assortment and less articulation to keep SW going, then that's what they need to do. They are a business, and business needs to make money.

I couldn't disagree more. I think that's a total cop out. Is it that these types of figures are not profitable or just not as profitable as Hasbro desires? I would be shocked to find out that Hasbro has lost money on any of their Star Wars lines. If they're not making something it's due to one of the following:

1.) Past performance or research projects too litle customer demand to offset the cost2.) Retailers aren't interested in the offering because of their own research or past performance3.) They feel they have opportunity to make more profit elsewhere

If Hasbro feels the demand is not strong enough to continue with higher quality 4" figures, then they're not doing their research. A simple sampling of JD posts over the last week easily shows that the most desired product is more quality 4" figures. When presented with the idea of moving to another format or lower quality product, most people on here have said that would pretty much be the end of their collecting. I know plenty of kids that would be interested in obscure characters as well, provided they're not producing a host of jedi librarians.

More likely is that Hasbro feels these wouldn't be profitable due to the poor performance of the line in recent years, which is just more flawed logic. The 4" line hasn't done well due to the distribution issues and constant price increases. When you bloat the market with one assortment of figures and make others incredibly rare, you can't blame declining sales on the "lack of demand." Flooding the market with the same figures through multiple assortments is going to drive pegwarming. Surprise, Hasbro! I'm sure retailer interest in SW 4" is way down following this, but that's not due to the character selection of the 4" line. It's due to poor managment of the assortments/distribution and an inability to get new figures into people's hands.

At the end of the day, no one really knows how well something new will sell. Does Hasbro know the potential for obscure background characters in full distribution? At reasonable price points? I doubt it. Do they know how well the 6" line is going to sell? No clue. They've just decided to place their bets there because they believe there's more potential for profit per unit in an untapped arena. Making that decision doesn't mean that it's the route most likely to drive profit for Hasbro - it means they see greater potential for profit elsewhere, based on what is clearly flawed logic.

Hasbro just released high-res images and while looking at the painted prototypes, a question dawned on me: will this line suffer from the mismatched joint issue as the 3-3/4" line does from time to time?

I rarely pick up any figures any more, but I am looking forward to this line. My display room is limited and I am hoping the six inch figures will look a little more display-worthy, for lack of a better term.

Besides Maul and potentially some others, I'll be focusing mainly on the characters from the original trilogy.

I'd say it's possible out the gate, but it'll be highly noticeable... Very easy to pick apart, so hasbro may be more careful. Hard to say. That's, IMO, a factory issue and you know how those seem to always be hard to work out... according to Hasbro. So hard to say.

I think the reasoning is that Hasbro seems to want to shift collector focus to this larger scale line despite most collectors having sunk thousands of dollars into the 3.75" line and having no space nor desire for a new scale.

Is it that these types of figures are not profitable or just not as profitable as Hasbro desires?

Let's keep in mind the one BIG variable in all of this: Disney. Maybe it's a little premature, but I hold Disney, not Hasbro, responsible for all of these changes (ie 6" line, postponement of the 3D prequels, cancellation of Droid Factory). Since Disney entered the picture, we have seen a lot of change. Coincidence?

In another thread I commented on how I saw the Marvel Select 6" Avengers figures at my local Disney Store and how I'm sure within this calendar year, there would be a Star Wars section added to most Disney stores.

The 6" Black Series is that similar item to those Marvel Select figures and most likely what you will, at first, be able to find at your local Disney Store.

So based on that theory, yes, I do think that Disney had a hand in this.

I think the one thing that people are over looking most is that they do intend initially to have a 3.75" Black Series as well. This will most likely be the cancelled Droid Factory figures with some more of the core characters inserted to help round out the waves.

So the Black Series will be what replaces Vintage on the pegs, meanwhile the Movie Heroes and Clone Wars will continue. If you were to get worried about a 3.75" line, it should be the Clone Wars one, that sub-line I think is seriously on borrowed time and any new sculpting effort they want to do for Clone Wars characters will be done so the figure can be included in the Black Series - I would NOT be surprised to find out that the Spider Maul that DePriest said they were working on along with the ESB version of Slave I both being some of the first exclusives in the Black Series.

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Peter

Letting my collecting OCD get the better of me on a DAILY basis... and loving EVERY minute of it!

The toon's on borrowed time IMO. I'll be shocked if it has a future. So TCW line's been on it for a while now I think, at least in the animated capacity.

I'm not so sure there wille ven be a dedicated TCW line. Just a suspiscion on my part, but I think they'll maybe have a year left and phased out to something different or folded directly into the theoretical "Legends" sort of assortment of lowered articulation figures directly aimed at kids, and a lower price. All just speculation though, of course.

If producing high quality obscure background characters, EU characters, characters from cut-scenes, and any other odd segment of the 3.75 collection is profitable for Hasbro, they would continue.

Obviously, it isn't. If they need to move the scale to more kid friendly assortment and less articulation to keep SW going, then that's what they need to do. They are a business, and business needs to make money.

---But isn't that saying exactly what I said in a different way? =) There's not enough profit in it. Listen, I work in publishing. I have a series of books right now that are doing pretty well, but the publisher is not going to continue with them because they don't make ENOUGH profit. The books make money, but because of the way they are printed, and the low price we offer them at, they're not bringing in the money the publisher had hoped they would.

The toon's on borrowed time IMO. I'll be shocked if it has a future. So TCW line's been on it for a while now I think, at least in the animated capacity.

I'm not so sure there wille ven be a dedicated TCW line. Just a suspiscion on my part, but I think they'll maybe have a year left and phased out to something different or folded directly into the theoretical "Legends" sort of assortment of lowered articulation figures directly aimed at kids, and a lower price. All just speculation though, of course.

I don't know that I'd say the show is on borrowed time so much as its fate is tied to a lot of other developing situations right now: syndication, the Disney acquisition, new media property looming in 2015, etc. The initial vision was for a five season run anyway, so even a truncated Season Six (which has been confirmed) is really gravy at this point. It's become easy to bash it recently, but you can't deny it generates some insane toy fodder!

Which brings us to the fate of the animated figure line. I mean yeah, it hasn't been trending in a positive direction for awhile now, but really, have any of the lines been performing well given all the problems the past few years? I see the issues as mostly driven by Hasbro themselves: poor figure selection, poor quality, increasing prices, questionable case packs, etc. I mean, if you wanted to kill a line, they have pretty much laid out the blueprint.

I still feel like Clone Wars toys can and will sell, so I don't feel like the line needs to fold by any stretch. Admittedly I have a strong collector bias here but the TCW deluxe sets and new figures never seem to last long. I also suspect there is some implied obligation for them to provide some sort of merchandising support for the show at least as long as it is airing. So I do think there's a good chance we could see the line continue at least through the end of this year, assuming that Season Six wraps by December as has been floated out there recently. Beyond that, who knows? Lucasfilm could say we want you to stop making toys from this continuity, similar to what they have done with the Tartakovsky shows.

If the dedicated TCW line does end, my one wish would be that any figures they trawl out later on would still be in an animated rather than realistic style. I don't see why it costs any more to release them in one style versus another, change the packaging to whatever you want. Don't care about the articulation much either, so even sticking them in the $6 kiddie line is fine with me as long as they are source-accurate. I realize this is probably a longshot though.

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I promise you I will not entertain you in the hallway, and do not attempt to walk with me

I abhore painted "flesh" on human characters almost as much as I loathe PT figures. I realize the pic we have seen is a hand painted clearly a prototype (paint chips near collar and shoulder joint and pins visible in legs), so we will see.

If these come out with painted heads instead of cast, I will look at them like I do so many other 6in figures, and that is just glance at them, pick them up and wish they were better and return them to the shelf. A modern day "catch and release" kind of deal.

And to clairfy my earlier post, I was not implying that DD was talking down to us, it must have been the mood I was in when I read it. The numerous times that staff here at JD have interacted with him at Toy Fair or GI JOe Conventions he was as excited by the stuff as we were and even gave Rob some exclusive photo shots before pulling an item off the display. I assume the fanboy rants are on otheR sites?

I think the reasoning is that Hasbro seems to want to shift collector focus to this larger scale line despite most collectors having sunk thousands of dollars into the 3.75" line and having no space nor desire for a new scale.

Is it that these types of figures are not profitable or just not as profitable as Hasbro desires?

Let's keep in mind the one BIG variable in all of this: Disney. Maybe it's a little premature, but I hold Disney, not Hasbro, responsible for all of these changes (ie 6" line, postponement of the 3D prequels, cancellation of Droid Factory). Since Disney entered the picture, we have seen a lot of change. Coincidence?

I'm not sure I subscribe to that as much as the changes in the toy business. Look at some other licensed boys toys. And the growing trend seems to be to offer a range of figures in multiple scales. We've seen that in movie lines like Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Green Lantern & more. If anything, Hasbro Star Wars seems a little bit late to the game in that business model shift.